Section 1. Section two of Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred and
fifty-two as amended by section one of Act Numbered Thirty-two hundred
and eight, is hereby further amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 2. The
power to grant appropriations of public waters is hereby vested in the
Secretary of Commerce and Communications, in accordance with the
provisions of this law, upon the recommendation of the Irrigation
Council herein created.
"There is hereby created an Irrigation Council which shall consists of
five members who shall be appointed by the Governor-General with the
advice and consent of the Senate and shall receive a per diem of
fifteen pesos for each session of the council which they actually
attend: Provided, however, That officers already receiving a salary or
per diem from the Government shall serve without additional
remuneration.
"The chief water rights inspector of the Bureau of Public Works shall
be ex officio secretary of the Irrigation Council without additional
compensation.
"The Director of Public Works shall have direction and supervision of
the investigation for, and construction of, irrigation systems by the
Government of the Philippine Islands and shall perform such duties as
are prescribed herein.
"The chief irrigation engineer shall, in addition to the duties and
responsibilities stated in his appointment, be charged with those of
the superintendent of irrigation as provided in Act Numbered Eighteen
hundred and fifty-four."
Sec. 2. Section five of Act Numbered Twenty-one
hundred and fifty-two as amended by section one of Act Numbered
Twenty-six hundred and fifty-two, is hereby further amended to read as
follows:
"SECTION 5. The
Director of Public Works shall as soon as practicable prepare for such
streams in the Philippine Islands as may be designated by the Secretary
of Commerce and Communications a list of the appropriations of water
according to priority, and in order to make such list he shall cause a
notice to all claimants of water rights to be published in English, and
when he deems advisable, in Spanish and the local dialect, once a week
for four consecutive weeks in the Official Gazette. Such notice shall
also be posted in English, Spanish, and the local dialect, for the
period of four weeks as provided above, at the usual place for posting
public notices in the municipalities affected by the appropriation, and
shall besides be published once a week for four consecutive weeks by
means of bandillos or public criers. Such notice shall contain a
statement of the information that is desired to obtain from the
claimants, the conditions under which such claims must be presented,
and any further facts that may be deemed necessary. The said Director
of Public Works shall send to each person known to have a claim to the
waters of such streams a blank form, on which said claimant shall set
forth in writing all the particulars, showing the amounts and dates of
appropriations to the use of water of said streams to which he lays
claim, the said statement to include the following data, if possible:
"(a) The name and address of the claimant.
"(b) The nature of the use or title on which the
claim for an appropriation is based.
"(c) The data of the commencement of such use.
"Also if used for irrigation, the following:
"(d) The date
of beginning of survey.
"(e) The date of beginning of construction.
"( f) The date when completed.
"(g) The date of beginning and completion of
enlargement.
"(h) The dimensions of the ditch as originally
constructed and as enlarged.
"(i) The amount of land irrigated in the first year.
"( j) The amount in subsequent year, with the date of
irrigation and the amount of land such ditch is capable of irrigating.
"(k) The character of the soil and the kind of crops
cultivated.
"(l) Such other facts as will show compliance with
the law in acquiring the appropriation, and the rank of the priority
claimed.
"Each of said claimants shall be required to certify to his statements
under oath, and any officer authorized to administer oath is hereby
authorized to administer such oaths: Provided, however, That there
shall be no charge for such oaths when administered by any officer of
the insular, provincial, or municipal government authorized to
administer oaths."
Sec. 3. Section nine of Act Numbered Twenty-one
hundred and fifty-two as amended by section four of Act Numbered
Twenty-six hundred and fifty-two and section one of Act Numbered
Thirty-three hundred and one is hereby further amended to read as
follows:
"SECTION 9. Upon approval of the list of priorities the Secretary of Commerce and
Communications shall publish the said approved list in the manner
provided in section five of this Act. This notice shall show for each
appropriation:
"(a) The name and post-office address of the
appropriator.
"(b) The priority number of such appropriation.
"(c) The amount of prior appropriations.
"(d) The amount of water to which the appropriator is
entitled.
"(e) And if
such appropriations be for irrigation, a description of the legal
subdivisions of the land into which said water is to be diverted.
"It shall thereupon be the duty of the Director of Public Works to
issue to each appropriator represented in such list a certificate
signed by the Secretary of Commerce and Communications, setting forth
the information shown in items (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this
section relating to his appropriation.
"Such certificate shall be transmitted by the Director of Public Works,
by registered mail, to the register of deeds of the province in which
such appropriation shall have been made, and on the same date a notice
of such transmittal shall be forwarded by the Director of Public Works
to the appropriator and it shall be the duty of the register of deeds,
after having received from the appropriator the sum of two pesos, as a
fee, to record the same in a book specially prepared and kept for that
purpose, and thereupon immediately transmit the same to the
appropriator. If the water is to be wholly or partially used in another
province than that in which the point of diversion is located, the
Director of Public Works shall instruct the register of deeds of the
latter to transmit in the same manner, after the proper procedure, the
certified copy to the register of deeds of the province where the water
is to be used and this officer shall be entitled to the fees and
charged with the duties above mentioned: Provided, however, That if
such entry shall not be made by the appropriator within two years after
receipt of such notice from the Director of Public Works, the claimant
shall lose all right to the priority of appropriation as established in
this section and the certificate mentioned shall also ipso facto be
cancelled."
Sec. 4. Section thirteen of Act Numbered
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two, as amended by section five of Act
Numbered Twenty-six hundred and fifty-two and as amended by section
three of Act Numbered Thirty-two hundred and eight, is hereby further
amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 13. In
the event of the appropriators not organizing in accordance with the
provisions of the next preceding section, or during the time in which
the rights of using the public waters which have been appropriated are
being determined and adjudicated, the system shall be temporarily
administered under this Act as follows:
"(a) By the
municipal council, when the system affects one municipality alone.
"(b) By the provincial board, when it affects two or
more municipalities of a province.
"(c) By the Director of Public Works, when it affects
two or more provinces.
"The regulations issued for the administration, use, and distribution
of waters shall be previously approved by the Irrigation Council, and
in the preparation of those regulations all the persons interested
shall be given a hearing.
"The cost of this service shall be a lien upon the crops, in the first
place, and in the second place, upon the land of the water users and
ditch owners, in accordance with the distribution thereof, as shown by
the accounts of the municipal council, the provincial board, or the
Director of Public Works, which distribution shall be based upon the
irrigable area held by each appropriator or ditch owner, in proportion
to the total area served by the system: Provided, however, That the
funds necessary to defray the administration expenses prior to the
expiration of each agricultural year (the period intervening between
the beginning of the planting and the completion of the harvesting of
the crops), in accordance with the appropriation, shall be advanced by
the municipality or the province out of its funds, or by the Director
of Public Works, out of any unappropriated funds in the Insular
Treasury, and shall be reimbursed by the landowner or ditch owner at
the end of each year with interest at the rate of four per centum:
Provided, further, That the funds that may be advanced by the Director
of Public Works shall not exceed five hundred thousand pesos in any one
year: Provided, finally, That in the event of the municipalities or
provincial boards being without funds to cover these expenses the
administration of such system shall be given to the Director of Public
Works for such time as the funds advanced to meet said expenses are
paid from the Insular Treasury:
"The municipal and provincial
treasurers shall, in the performance of their official duties, collect
the charges for administration expenses for each year upon the
completion of each harvest, acting in this respect as delegates of the
Director of Public Works. Such lien shall have preference over all
other liens except that for taxes on the land and any mortgage lien in
favor of the Philippine Agricultural Bank, or its successor, and such
preferred lien shall not be removed until all charges are paid or the
property is sold for payment thereof. Within one year after default of
payment on an installment payable on any parcel of land, the municipal
president, the provincial governor, or the Director of Public Works
shall file with the clerk of the Court of First Instance of the
district in which the land is situated, a list of all lands upon which
default has been made. The clerk of the court shall thereupon publish
in the manner provided for the publication of the summons in a civil
action, a list of the lands so filed by the Director of Public Works,
accompanied by a notice requiring the owners to file an answer thereto
within thirty days after the completion of the publication.
"Upon the filing of an answer by
the person interested, the action in respect to such person shall
proceed to judgment, as provided for other actions by the Code of Civil
Procedure. Upon termination of such thirty days, judgment shall be
entered against such persons as have not answered, and their lands, or
the portion thereof, deemed necessary, shall be sold, after ten days'
public notice, at public auction by the sheriff to satisfy such
preferred lien.
"Any excess over the amount of said lien and the cost of such procedure
shall be returned to the interested person who shall have one year
thereafter to redeem his land by payment of the amount of judgment, and
costs with interest at six per centum: Provided, however, That in the
event of the cost of maintenance being so exceptionally high in any
year that it exceeds fifty per centum of the net profits, such
exceptional cost shall be distributed in an equitable manner, over two
or more years, but not more than five: And provided, further, That in
the case in which a crop is unharvested at the time of the execution of
the lien the execution shall be levied first on said crops.
"In the preparation of the regulations mentioned in this and the next
preceding section, the customs and usages of each locality shall be
taken into consideration, and in these regulations one day of the year
shall be fixed for a meeting of all the persons interested for the
purpose of preparing an estimate of expenditures of the next succeeding
year."
Sec. 5. Section sixteen of Act Numbered Twenty-one
hundred and fifty-two is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 16. If
there is no unappropriated water in the source of supply, the Secretary
of Commerce and Communications, through the Director of Public Works,
shall deny the application in writing, a record thereof being filed in
his office, and shall return the application so denied to the applicant
who shall not prosecute any work under his application. If the
applicant shall perform any work under his application he shall be
guilty of and punished for a misdemeanor.
"If the source of supply be a
navigable stream, the application must be referred by the Director of
Public Works to the Insular Collector of Customs, who shall return the
application with his recommendation thereon.
"If there is unappropriated water in the source of supply named and the
appropriation is not detrimental to the public, the Secretary of
Commerce and Communications shall approve the application with such
conditions as he may deem wise to impose to safeguard the public
interest and indorse, through the Director of Public Works, such
approval upon the application. In his indorsement he shall require that
actual construction work must begin within one year from the date of
such approval, and shall state the period of time within which the work
shall be diligently prosecuted to completion and the water applied to
beneficial use within the period of time fixed by the Secretary of
Commerce and Communications which shall not exceed five years from the
date of the approval of the application.
"A record of such approval and indorsement shall be filed in the office
of the Director of Public Works, who shall return the application to
the applicant, authorizing him to take such measures as may be
necessary to perfect the appropriation: Provided, however, That in case
there is an insufficient supply for the total amount of water applied
for, the Secretary of Commerce and Communications may approve an
application for a less amount of water."
Sec. 6. Section seventeen of Act Numbered
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two, as amended by section eight of Act
Numbered Twenty-six hundred and fifty-two, is hereby further amended to
read as follows:
"SECTION 17. After the approval of an application the applicant shall submit in
duplicate to the Director of Public Works, for approval, the plans and
specifications for the works necessary for the use of the water granted
by the said approval. No work shall be begun until the plans for the
same have been approved, and no work shall be done at any time except
in accordance with the said plans. The Director of Public Works shall
have authority to examine and inspect such works during construction
and order any changes or alterations which he may consider necessary
for the security of the works, or the safeguarding of life, property,
or the public interest. No water shall be turned into such works until
the approval of the same by the Director of Public Works has been
secured.
"Any failure to conform to the requirements laid down in this section
shall be punishable as a misdemeanor under this Act: Provided, however,
That applicants for small appropriations to irrigate land, not in
excess of sixteen hectares, shall not be required to submit plans and
specifications other than those required in the application, and the
water may be turned into such works as soon as completed without
reference to the Director of Public Works: And provided, further, That
the plans for the construction or reconstruction of temporary earth,
brush, or grass dams across the channel of a stream, shall not be
submitted when less than three meters in height. If a dam across a
channel of a stream is to be constructed of permanent materials, the
plans shall be submitted to the Director of Public Works for approval.
Plans of temporary dams constructed of temporary materials such as
brush, grass, or of earth, greater than three meters in height, shall
be submitted for approval.
"At least thirty days before the
date set for the completion of the works to divert the water sought to
be appropriated, the Director of Public Works shall notify the
applicant by registered mail of the date when proof of completion of
work shall be due. On or before the date set for completing the works
to divert the water in accordance with the application therefor, the
applicant shall make proof thereof, by filing with the office of the
Director of Public Works a statement descriptive of the work done. Said
statement shall be sworn to by the applicant.
"As soon as proof of completion of works has been accepted and
approved, and upon it being shown to the satisfaction of the Director
of Public Works that an appropriation has been perfected in accordance
with the application therefor, and that the water has been put to
beneficial use, it shall be the duty of the Director of Public Works to
issue a certificate as provided in section eighteen hereof, as amended,
to the party making same. Failure to make proof of beneficial use of
the water on or before the date set therefor, shall cause the
forfeiture of the water right grant."
Sec. 7. A new section is hereby inserted between
sections twenty and twenty-one of Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred and
fifty-two which shall be known as section twenty (A) and shall read as
follows:
"SECTION 20
(A). In case of application for an appropriation for
large development, the Secretary of Commerce and Communications,
through the Director of Public Works, may require a statement of the
following facts in addition to the information required by section
twenty hereof:
"(a) In case of incorporated companies he may require
the submission of the articles of incorporation, the names and places
of residence of the directors and officers, and the amount of its
authorized and of its paid-up capital.
"(b) In the cases of individuals or companies which
are not incorporated, he may require a statement as to the name or
names of the party or parties proposing to construct the work, and a
showing of facts necessary to enable him to determine whether or not
they have the financial ability to carry out the proposed work and
whether or not the said application has been made in good faith."
Sec. 8. A new section is hereby inserted between
sections twenty-one and twenty-two of Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred
and fifty-two which shall be known as section twenty-one (A) and shall
read as follows:
"SECTION 21
(A). If, in the judgment of the Secretary of Commerce
and Communications, the holder of any unperfected grant to appropriate
public waters for irrigation, domestic, mining, power, industrial, and
other purposes is not proceeding in good faith and with reasonable
diligence to perfect said appropriation, the Secretary of Commerce and
Communications may require at any time the submission of the necessary
data to show a compliance with the law, and the Secretary of Commerce
and Communications may, with the approval of the Irrigation Council,
cancel the said grant."
Sec. 9. Section twenty-five of Act Numbered
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two as amended by section seven of Act
Numbered Thirty-two hundred and eight, is hereby further amended to
read as follows:
"SECTION 25. Upon determination by the Secretary of Commerce and Communications that
the Government construction of any irrigation project is advisable, he
shall, in the manner prescribed in section fifteen hereof, give public
notice of:
"(a) The land irrigable under such project.
"(b) The total annual charge per hectare which shall
consist of the following items: First, a uniform annual charge to cover
the cost of construction with interest, which shall be computed so that
it will reimburse within a period not exceeding forty years the cost of
construction with interest at the rate of four per centum per annum;
second, the estimated cost of operation and maintenance; and third, the
insurance charge provided for in section thirty-one hereof: Provided,
however, That in the cases of systems wherein the total annual charge
above provided exceeds twelve pesos per hectare, and the landowners
affected do not express in writing their preference to reimburse the
cost of construction within a period not exceeding forty years with
interest at the rate of four per centum per annum, the total annual
charge per hectare shall consist of the following items: first, the
annual assessment, which shall be computed at the rate of four per
centum of the cost of construction per hectare; second, the estimated
cost of operation and maintenance; and third, the insurance charge
provided for in section thirty-one hereof.
"(c) A
statement that protest against the construction of the project may be
filed with the Governor-General within ninety days after completion of
publication.
"At the beginning of the publication of the notice a map shall be filed
in the office of the municipal secretary of each municipality
interested, showing the land to be affected by the irrigation project,
which map shall be open to inspection by the public.
"The Secretary of Commerce and Communications shall publish or cause to
be published in English, and, whenever he deems advisable in Spanish
and in the local dialect, in the Official Gazette, the notice provided
for in this section, which notice shall be published once a week for
four consecutive weeks. Such notice in English, Spanish, and the local
dialect shall also be posted at the usual places for posting public
notices in each municipality and place affected by said project and
shall also be published once a week for four consecutive weeks by
bandillos or public criers."
Sec. 10. Section twenty-nine of Act Numbered
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 29. Upon the completion of the construction of any project, or sufficient
part thereof, by the Government, the Secretary of Commerce and
Communications shall issue a second public notice, which shall be
posted and published in the same manner as provided in section fifteen
hereof.
"This notice shall announce:
"(a) The land irrigable under such project, or part
thereof;
"(b) The total annual charge per hectare which shall
consist of the following items: first, a uniform annual charge to cover
the cost of construction with interest, which shall be computed so that
it will reimburse within a period not exceeding forty years the cost of
construction with interest at the rate of four per centum per annum;
second, the estimated cost of operation and maintenance; and third, the
insurance charge provided for in section thirty-one hereof: Provided,
however, That in the cases of systems wherein the total annual charge,
above provided, exceeds twelve pesos per hectare, and the land owners
affected do not express in writing their preference to reimburse the
cost of construction within a period not exceeding forty years with
interest at the rate of four per centum per annum, the total annual
charge per hectare shall consist of the following items: first, the
annual assessment, which shall be computed at the rate of four per
centum of the cost of construction per hectare; second, the estimated
cost of operation and maintenance; and third, the insurance charge
provided for in section thirty-one hereof.
"(c) The
payment of the annual charge corresponding to any year shall be made
not later than August thirty-first of the succeeding year: Provided,
however, That no charge shall be collected from the landowners
benefited during the first year of operation; that the cost of
operation and maintenance alone shall be collected during the second
year of operation; and that the collection of the total annual charge
shall begin during the third year of operation.
"(d) The date on which the official test of the
system is to be made in the presence of the persons interested for
their satisfaction.
"(e) Failure to pay the annual charge within the
period prescribed by item (c) shall subject the landowners to a penalty
of ten per centum of the original charge due if paid not later than
December thirty-first of every year, the penalty to be increased to
twenty per centum thereafter.
"If the annual charge and penalties above provided shall remain unpaid
on the dates specified in items (c) and (e), the same shall become a
lien against the delinquent land and the crops raised thereon, which
lien shall have preference and be collectible, as prescribed in section
thirteen hereof."
Sec. 11. Section thirty of Act Numbered Twenty-one
hundred and fifty-two is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 30. Whenever by reason of shortage of water or other fortuitous event, a
failure or shortage of crops shall occur on lands included in any
irrigation system of any portion of said system, and whenever any land
included as irrigable is found to be not benefited by irrigation, the
Secretary of Commerce and Communications may at his discretion extend
the time for the payment of the installment for lands which reimburse
the cost of construction with interest, or waive the assessment
provided for in section twenty-nine hereof."
Sec. 12. Section thirty-one of Act Numbered
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SECTION 31. If
at any time any irrigation works or portion thereof constructed by the
Insular Government under the provisions of this Act shall be damaged,
or destroyed, or shall be in danger of destruction, or serious damages
by earthquake, fire, lightning, flood, tornado, typhoon, hurricane,
war, or by other fortuitous event or force majeure, the same shall be
upon approval of the Governor-General, repaired, reconstructed,
improved from the insurance fund hereafter provided for in this
section, and the cost of such repair, reconstruction or improvement
shall not be charged against the landowners benefited.
"There is hereby authorized and created an irrigation insurance fund
which shall be established and maintained as follows: The Secretary of
Commerce and Communications shall instruct the Director of Public Works
to add to the amount collectible from each owner of land irrigated by
any such irrigation system operated under the provisions of this Act an
amount not exceeding fifty centavos per hectare, which shall be covered
into the Insular Treasury and set aside as a special fund to be known
as the 'Irrigation Insurance Fund,' which fund may be invested by
authority of the Secretary of Commerce and Communications, first, in
financial transactions with relation to irrigation proceedings, and
second, in the same manner and under the same conditions as other trust
funds handled by the Insular Government may be invested; and the said
fund, together with the accumulated interest thereon, shall be expended
for the purposes and in the manner provided in this section and for no
other purpose: Provided, however, That whenever said irrigation
insurance fund shall exceed three hundred thousand pesos, the Secretary
of Commerce and Communications may, at his discretion, order that no
further collection shall be made until said fund shall have been
reduced by expenditure as provided herein to less than one hundred and
fifty thousand pesos."
Sec. 13. The provisions of this Act shall be made
applicable to the irrigation systems heretofore completed, to systems
now under construction and to systems that may be constructed in the
future under the provisions of Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred and
fifty-two as amended, any act or provisions of law to the contrary
notwithstanding: Provided, however, That the provisions of this Act
shall not be applied to the Pilar Irrigation System in Bataan Province
and the Talavera River Irrigation System in Nueva Ecija Province except
upon the request of the landowners affected and with the approval of
the Governor-General: Provided, further, That in the cases of systems
heretofore approved for construction under the provisions of Act
Numbered Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two, as amended, which have not
been in operation for more than ten years, the annual assessment
provided for in item (B), section twenty-nine thereof, shall be so
computed that the total annual charge per hectare of land irrigated
provided for in said section twenty-nine thereof shall in no case
exceed twelve pesos per hectare.
Sec. 14. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: February 21, 1929.
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